Effects of smoking don’t end with kids

In the past few decades, there have been countless publications about the health dangers of smoking. We learned about the hazards of secondhand smoking. The idea of third hand smoking is new to many, but real. Smoking affects all aspects of life from the time of conception to adult life. Smoking leads to cancer and cardiovascular diseases. It complicates pregnancies and worsens asthma symptoms. It also complicates all other chronic disease known to men, including diabetes, high blood pressure and neurodegenerative disorders of aging. Babies who are born to mothers who smoke during pregnancy are born small, often premature. They develop lung problems, and even learning and behavior problems.

What if the effects of smoking can be felt or passed along from one generation to another? In other words, what if the ills caused by smoking in today’s generation are from the fact that our grandparents and great-grandparents were smokers? This is exactly what a group of scientists from the Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute (LRRI) and the University of New Mexico (UNM) are working on. Using mice that are exposed to secondhand smoking, this group of scientists led by Drs. Mohan Sopori and Dr. Shashi Singh recently published a paper showing that mice that are exposed to secondhand smoking would have pups that show health problems due to smoking, even when these pups are raised in a smoke-free environment. Interestingly, the second generation of pups (the grandchildren of mice exposed to smoking) will also show signs of ill health, just because the grandparents were smokers, or exposed to secondhand cigarette smoke.

In my conversation with families and children that I care for at UNM Children’s Hospital, I often hear from caring moms and dads, and caring grandparents that they are trying their best to quit. They try to reduce the number of cigarettes that they use daily. Often, I hear that they try not to smoke in the presence of the kids. They acknowledge that smoking in the bathroom and in the car is still bad for their kids. So they smoke outside. They change clothing to help mitigate the smell. Our parents are caring parents. They want to protect their kids from the ills of cigarette exposure. So they try to make it as safe as possible. In other words, these parents are searching for the safest level of cigarette smoke exposure that is safe for the family.

Man and mice are different. However, based on this recent piece of research, it might be best not only to quit, but also to stay away altogether from cigarette exposure at all costs. The concept of third-hand smoking is the fact that chemical products from smoking remain in our carpets, chairs and other objects in the room long after smoking has ceased. Now, there is data to suggest that cigarettes chemicals get stuck in the hands of the smoker. Vigorous hand washing might not get rid of all the chemicals.

Big Tobacco Attacks Sensible F.D.A. Rules on Vaping

As smokers turned to electronic cigarettes to reduce the health risks of smoking, big tobacco companies started buying e-cigarette makers and producing and selling their own. Now those companies are lobbying Congress to prevent the Food and Drug Administration from regulating electronic cigarettes and cigars, as it does conventional cigarettes. If they succeed, they will be able to sell and market addictive nicotine products to young people with few restrictions.

While promoters of e-cigarettes and e-cigars, which provide nicotine in vapor form, say they can help people quit conventional tobacco products containing harmful tar, there is not a lot of evidence for that claim. In addition, the devices are dangerous to young people because the nicotine they provide “can cause addiction and can harm the developing adolescent brain,” according to a 2016 report by the surgeon general, Vivek Murthy. Health experts also say that the vapor those devices produce can contain carcinogens and metal particles.

Another government report found that 16 percent of high-school students said they had used e-cigarettes in 2015, up from just 1.5 percent in 2011. The industry sells these products in a broad array of flavors, like gummy bear and cotton candy, designed to appeal to young people when they are more susceptible to becoming dependent or addicted to nicotine.

After years of deliberation, the F.D.A. said last May that it would begin regulating the manufacturing, sale, packaging and advertising of e-cigarettes, and all tobacco products, under a 2009 federal law that authorized it to do so. Specifically, the agency said it would begin reviewing the health risks of e-cigarettes introduced since early 2007, and potentially ban specific flavors and products that it deemed harmful. The tobacco lobby wants Republicans to amend a vital appropriations bill to exempt products that were introduced before May 2016 from F.D.A. review.

The push to undermine the F.D.A.’s authority began even before the agency had finished its rule. One Republican lawmaker, Representative Tom Cole of Oklahoma, introduced a bill in 2015 that was identical to a draft circulated by the Altria Group, the country’s biggest tobacco company and a marketer of vaping products. In addition to its legislative effort, the industry has also filed several lawsuits in federal courts challenging the rule.

Tobacco companies complain that the F.D.A.’s rule amounts to “retroactive” regulation because many of the e-cigarettes and e-cigars it will regulate have been on the market for years. But the industry has known for years that government officials were developing this rule. Large bipartisan majorities in Congress voted in 2009 to hand the agency the authority to evaluate and approve new tobacco products introduced on or after Feb. 15, 2007. The F.D.A. is simply doing its job by protecting public health.

A Joint a Day Causes Fish to Decay

The Lumberjack 4/19/17

By Bryan Donoghue

Fish need water, and so does marijuana, but people may not realize we’re approaching a point where it’s between one or the other. Many illegal grow operations divert water from streams, which is the most common environmental crime committed, according to Sergeant Kerry Ireland of the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office (California). Ireland is in charge of the Special Services Division of the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office. He said that there are currently no investigations going on having to do with environmental crimes, but they have seized 135 thousand plants from over 100 marijuana grows, and issued 51 search warrants in 2016.

“That’s just a drop in the bucket for the number of marijuana plants that are in Humboldt County,” Ireland said. “There’s also at least 20 thousand cultivation sites in Humboldt.” The adverse effects of marijuana cultivation are presently more than just an environmental crime, it’s harming our wildlife too. Darren Ward is a fisheries biology associate professor and researcher of freshwater ecology at Humboldt State.

“There’s a real direct reason we should care,” Ward said. “There’s endangered salmon and steelhead that live in those streams. There are cases where they’ve been documented to die when stream flows are reduced because of water withdrawals.”

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, when stream flows are reduced, they are categorized as a low-flow. Summer low-flows are particularly extreme because higher heats cause water to evaporate a quicker rate.

If for no other reason, it’s important to care about that because it’s a violation of federal law,” Ward said.

Sergeant Ireland works with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife conducting investigations on environmental regulations that are broken. If there is a water violation, he contacts the State Water Resources Control Board, where they assist each other by investigating independently and then sharing their findings. Ireland finds that more marijuana grows continue to appear, and now they’re widespread throughout all of Humboldt County.

“It is everywhere,” Ireland said. “It’s literally in all parts of the county.”

Plenty of research is in progress to map how widespread grows are. Redwood Creek is a major contributing stream flowing into the Eel River. It is also one of the areas where major property subdivisions and land-use changes have taken place in the last 50 years, according to geography alumna Cristina Bauss.

Bauss took a look at the heavily impacted watershed of Redwood Creek in her bachelor’s thesis. Coincidentally, Redwood Creek was one of four watersheds studied by Senior Environmental Scientist Supervisor Scott Bauer associated with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. Bauss used Google Earth imagery from 2014, whereas the Bauer used imagery from 2012. Bauss duplicated Bauer’s study to examine the difference in greenhouse capacity and found an 18 percent increase in two years. That’s an exceptional amount of land being used for marijuana.

Effects of smoking don’t end with kids

In the past few decades, there have been countless publications about the health dangers of smoking. We learned about the hazards of secondhand smoking. The idea of third hand smoking is new to many, but real. Smoking affects all aspects of life from the time of conception to adult life. Smoking leads to cancer and cardiovascular diseases. It complicates pregnancies and worsens asthma symptoms. It also complicates all other chronic disease known to men, including diabetes, high blood pressure and neurodegenerative disorders of aging. Babies who are born to mothers who smoke during pregnancy are born small, often premature. They develop lung problems, and even learning and behavior problems.

What if the effects of smoking can be felt or passed along from one generation to another? In other words, what if the ills caused by smoking in today’s generation are from the fact that our grandparents and great-grandparents were smokers? This is exactly what a group of scientists from the Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute (LRRI) and the University of New Mexico (UNM) are working on. Using mice that are exposed to secondhand smoking, this group of scientists led by Drs. Mohan Sopori and Dr. Shashi Singh recently published a paper showing that mice that are exposed to secondhand smoking would have pups that show health problems due to smoking, even when these pups are raised in a smoke-free environment. Interestingly, the second generation of pups (the grandchildren of mice exposed to smoking) will also show signs of ill health, just because the grandparents were smokers, or exposed to secondhand cigarette smoke.

In my conversation with families and children that I care for at UNM Children’s Hospital, I often hear from caring moms and dads, and caring grandparents that they are trying their best to quit. They try to reduce the number of cigarettes that they use daily. Often, I hear that they try not to smoke in the presence of the kids. They acknowledge that smoking in the bathroom and in the car is still bad for their kids. So they smoke outside. They change clothing to help mitigate the smell. Our parents are caring parents. They want to protect their kids from the ills of cigarette exposure. So they try to make it as safe as possible. In other words, these parents are searching for the safest level of cigarette smoke exposure that is safe for the family.

Man and mice are different. However, based on this recent piece of research, it might be best not only to quit, but also to stay away altogether from cigarette exposure at all costs. The concept of third-hand smoking is the fact that chemical products from smoking remain in our carpets, chairs and other objects in the room long after smoking has ceased. Now, there is data to suggest that cigarettes chemicals get stuck in the hands of the smoker. Vigorous hand washing might not get rid of all the chemicals.

Big Tobacco Attacks Sensible F.D.A. Rules on Vaping

As smokers turned to electronic cigarettes to reduce the health risks of smoking, big tobacco companies started buying e-cigarette makers and producing and selling their own. Now those companies are lobbying Congress to prevent the Food and Drug Administration from regulating electronic cigarettes and cigars, as it does conventional cigarettes. If they succeed, they will be able to sell and market addictive nicotine products to young people with few restrictions.

While promoters of e-cigarettes and e-cigars, which provide nicotine in vapor form, say they can help people quit conventional tobacco products containing harmful tar, there is not a lot of evidence for that claim. In addition, the devices are dangerous to young people because the nicotine they provide “can cause addiction and can harm the developing adolescent brain,” according to a 2016 report by the surgeon general, Vivek Murthy. Health experts also say that the vapor those devices produce can contain carcinogens and metal particles.

Another government report found that 16 percent of high-school students said they had used e-cigarettes in 2015, up from just 1.5 percent in 2011. The industry sells these products in a broad array of flavors, like gummy bear and cotton candy, designed to appeal to young people when they are more susceptible to becoming dependent or addicted to nicotine.

After years of deliberation, the F.D.A. said last May that it would begin regulating the manufacturing, sale, packaging and advertising of e-cigarettes, and all tobacco products, under a 2009 federal law that authorized it to do so. Specifically, the agency said it would begin reviewing the health risks of e-cigarettes introduced since early 2007, and potentially ban specific flavors and products that it deemed harmful. The tobacco lobby wants Republicans to amend a vital appropriations bill to exempt products that were introduced before May 2016 from F.D.A. review.

The push to undermine the F.D.A.’s authority began even before the agency had finished its rule. One Republican lawmaker, Representative Tom Cole of Oklahoma, introduced a bill in 2015 that was identical to a draft circulated by the Altria Group, the country’s biggest tobacco company and a marketer of vaping products. In addition to its legislative effort, the industry has also filed several lawsuits in federal courts challenging the rule.

Tobacco companies complain that the F.D.A.’s rule amounts to “retroactive” regulation because many of the e-cigarettes and e-cigars it will regulate have been on the market for years. But the industry has known for years that government officials were developing this rule. Large bipartisan majorities in Congress voted in 2009 to hand the agency the authority to evaluate and approve new tobacco products introduced on or after Feb. 15, 2007. The F.D.A. is simply doing its job by protecting public health.

A Joint a Day Causes Fish to Decay

The Lumberjack 4/19/17

By Bryan Donoghue

Fish need water, and so does marijuana, but people may not realize we’re approaching a point where it’s between one or the other. Many illegal grow operations divert water from streams, which is the most common environmental crime committed, according to Sergeant Kerry Ireland of the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office (California). Ireland is in charge of the Special Services Division of the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office. He said that there are currently no investigations going on having to do with environmental crimes, but they have seized 135 thousand plants from over 100 marijuana grows, and issued 51 search warrants in 2016.

“That’s just a drop in the bucket for the number of marijuana plants that are in Humboldt County,” Ireland said. “There’s also at least 20 thousand cultivation sites in Humboldt.” The adverse effects of marijuana cultivation are presently more than just an environmental crime, it’s harming our wildlife too. Darren Ward is a fisheries biology associate professor and researcher of freshwater ecology at Humboldt State.

“There’s a real direct reason we should care,” Ward said. “There’s endangered salmon and steelhead that live in those streams. There are cases where they’ve been documented to die when stream flows are reduced because of water withdrawals.”

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, when stream flows are reduced, they are categorized as a low-flow. Summer low-flows are particularly extreme because higher heats cause water to evaporate a quicker rate.

If for no other reason, it’s important to care about that because it’s a violation of federal law,” Ward said.

Sergeant Ireland works with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife conducting investigations on environmental regulations that are broken. If there is a water violation, he contacts the State Water Resources Control Board, where they assist each other by investigating independently and then sharing their findings. Ireland finds that more marijuana grows continue to appear, and now they’re widespread throughout all of Humboldt County.

“It is everywhere,” Ireland said. “It’s literally in all parts of the county.”

Plenty of research is in progress to map how widespread grows are. Redwood Creek is a major contributing stream flowing into the Eel River. It is also one of the areas where major property subdivisions and land-use changes have taken place in the last 50 years, according to geography alumna Cristina Bauss.

Bauss took a look at the heavily impacted watershed of Redwood Creek in her bachelor’s thesis. Coincidentally, Redwood Creek was one of four watersheds studied by Senior Environmental Scientist Supervisor Scott Bauer associated with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. Bauss used Google Earth imagery from 2014, whereas the Bauer used imagery from 2012. Bauss duplicated Bauer’s study to examine the difference in greenhouse capacity and found an 18 percent increase in two years. That’s an exceptional amount of land being used for marijuana.